The Royal Wedding (Part 3)

The favours.

Sorry for being quiet for a while. Life has taken its toll on me, and I was in a mess, trying to figure out things (my eyebags were really bad these few months!). It's calmer now, and I'm trying to pick up the pieces again. There are many new things I did and I can't wait to blog all about them!

Let's continue from where we left, shall we?

Here are the favours that we made for my sister's wedding. I altered the Ma'thurat (prayer book) for the Akad Nikah (solemnization ceremony), and gave them out for the guests:

And I made the tags stamped with white chalk ink for the guest reception favours (we bought the ready-made woven box):

 ... and packed the ice gems biscuits for our little guests as well.

Last but not least, these handmade fridge magnets were made few weeks before the wedding, for my sister's close friends:

(I know, I went a wee bit crazy with everything LOL).

2010 Calendar v 2.0

Hope it's not too late to wish everyone a happy new year! 2009 has been a fabulous year, and I'm really hoping that 2010 would take up a notch on the 'fabulous' adjective hehe.

After making the last calendar, I thought of making a few more, but at last, I could only manage to finish two - one for belated birthday present, and another for a friend who celebrated the 1st of Jan with me haha.

This one goes to the friend who celebrated the coming of New Year with me by watching Avatar 3D (which was really cool), and who always cheered me up by stuffing ourselves with food every time we meet haha.


I made this using all of my favourite colours again (earth colours), and with the thought of the one on the receiving end. The desk calendar came across looking a bit masculine haha, but I think it suited her perfectly - coz she's a tough woman with a strong heart and a very, very thick head haha.

In case you're wondering, I didn't make the centerpiece, it was actually from earrings which I found on sale at Jusco hehe. It was very cheap soo I bought some of them (in different designs - roses, butterflies etc), and pull out all the unnecessary parts of the earrings and use them for my crafts. Cool FOUND huh? (This time I would selfishly resist from telling the price haha)

This is the layout for all the upcoming months of 2010:


And it feels good to take a break from quilling once in a while hehe. I'm applying the same theme in all 12 months, and make use of the FOUND paper punch that I bought at Daiso last time. And this is how each card look like:


I'm no professional stamper, so I messed the papers up with uneven stamping and smudges all over the calendar haha.

But I still thought it's a beautiful mess, because it shows how much love I've put in making the whole thing. :)


And I apologize for the shadowy pictures - they were taken in a hurry at a very dim cafe, with a very outdated camera haha - but at least they came out pretty well hehe..


As you can see, each month sports similar design, but with slightly different arrangement to it.


And as you can also see, this calendar is also flooded with white buttons haha..


...just because I have plenty of them haha (done restocking black and white buttons).


And since I'm going green, except for the card stock for the base of the calendar and the pattern paper (again, it's actually wrapping paper), and the buttons, the rest were made from recycle papers - most are extras from previous crafts etc.


And the brown paper.. well.. it was from nasi lemak wrappers hahaha (unused ones :P)


The cardstock for the base of the card was actually grey in colour, and I use some splashes of olive green (my fav!) to the cards as well.


I like refering these as cards more than as calendar, because I think they can be reused as monthly birthday cards.


And I don't like repeating the 2010, so 2010 was only stamped once on the box, but were not stamped anyone on the individual cards.


Haha, when I see it - December was done in such a mess. The numbers looked like they're about to collapse LOL.


The above shows how the calender should stand on a working desk. And below is what I've written on the inside of the cover:


Yeah. It has always been an ugly handwriting, but it gets uglier these days heh. And the smug face below is the recipient of the calendar hehe.

Babe, can you believe we've survived this roller-coaster friendship for 18 years? How did that happen hahahaha...?!


p/s: Next time, let's do that Korean buffet, pizza, grilled chicken and that plentiful of desserts again!

(it's the backside of the calendar box. Still need to have a properly done rubber stamp)

Thank you

Dear readers,

Thank you for being patience.


I've been quite busy lately that it's hard to find time to update the blog. Or even the facebook. (will tell you soon enough about my current project). Anyhow, I'll keave with this simple card made of quilled flowers (yet again!).


The quilled flowers were pre-made so the making of the card took me less than 5 minutes to design. Currently my quilled flowers collection has amounted up to 200 pieces and they're of multi-colours. So it's definitely helpful when I need to make an instant card since I already have the pre-quilled items.

The word THANK YOU was stamped using alphabet stamps set that I bought at Popular Book Store, which only costs me RM12.50 - for the whole A-Z letters. It's very cheap, to compare to the ones sold at local craft store. I love the messiness the letters made hehe, so I'm definitely recommending the alphabets set to everyone. If you're a Popular card member, the current promotion would have the stamps set sold at 10% discount - so you can buy the set at RM11.25 each! (I just got my numbers stamps set today hehe with the same price)

Just a caution - not all Popular stores sell the stamps sets. I found mine at Popular Bukit Raja, Klang. Have fun hunting for the stamps!

Mango's Game

This is a delicious news.

Mangosteenskins is having a giveaway!


Mango has always been one of my favourite Malaysian crafters, and I've been a loyal reader since last year. She's one great lady with LOTS of artistic talents, and fabulously famous for her handcarved eraser stamps (which are really REALLY beautiful!). I think she has 2 amazing eyes - for such detailed jobs haha. I've always wanted one of her stamps, but I think she has enough on her hands to handle right now. She's been featured few times in local magazines and newspaper(s) - which is like a dream for crafters alike :P

The great news is that she's having eraser stamps giveaway at her blog! And of course I'm joining the bandwagon! And you should too!

Mango,

If I were given a choice, it would be an honour to have this to be handcarved by you:

رِحْلِة الأَلْف مِيل تَبْدَأ بِخَطْوَة

It's Arabic Calligraphy! The saying is an Arabic proverb. I'll tell you the meaning if I win ok! Hahahahaha.

It's more about the fun of participating than winning, I guess. So dear readers, JOIN IN THE FUN NOW and read the details of her giveaway in her blog HERE.

P for Purple, W for Wait

A purple card
From a little bird,
For the girl of the sad smile

"I miss you." it said.
"I miss you too." the girl answered.
"Wait for me."
"I will."

And that was the end of her sadness, we suppose?

The Art of Literature

The great thing of being a literature major and an art lover is that you get to combine two things you love most in the world - the beautiful language and the ecstatics of arts. And when both combined, you can have some fresh ideas to your crafts.

Like when I started this craze over hand-made stamps, I have no ideas what and where I'm going to use my stamps - given that I was never a stamper before. So the simplest idea that I can do is to create stories based on the stamps, and I come out with these note cards:

All the scalloping, doodling and wordings are self-made. Enjoy!

Hand-made stamps II

I've started my first class yesterday and since its going to be another hectic semester, I'm trying to juggle between being a good student (haha!), a teacher (will start teaching again early August), a forum addict and a scrapper - all at the same time. It's going to be tough! I'm still going to be online everyday, but I'm going to allocate my time for blogging only during midnight (coz that's the only time I'm going to be available).

Back to what I'm going to say. Oh. I'm seriously addicted to making stamps out of erasers haha. I'm just a beginner, so I'm still practicing. After all, the last time I carve things was during an Art class in primary school (when I have to carve & stamp using potatoes.) If you wanna see seriously artistic hand-made stamper, feel free to visit Mangosteen's blog. You'll be amazed of what she can do.

As promised , these are what the stamps look like on paper. I used black stamp pad (Artline hahaha) since I don't have any craft stamping pads (need to buy some later at craft shops). I've tried using water-colour marker pen (where you can add few drops of water to create a water-coloured effect), but the result is not as good as using proper stamp pad. And not that I did not try using my old eyeshadows...;p but that didn't work either.

Before I start mumbling again... enjoy the stamps!


Small house...



Big house (I thought it looks like a circus tent haha)



A muffin..with cherry on top


My first leaf


My second leaf (looks much better)


Heart shape 1


heart in a box haha


Another leaf


A fat butterfly


A gift box (need to do another one)


Tulips


Sunflower



Bird (need to do more!)



and last but not least... my very own Miyyah@Kertas stamp (so now I can just stamp for my card signature!)

They are not perfect, will never be anyway. But as people always say, the imperfection is what make things beautiful. (even if it only lies in the eyes of the beholder muaahhaha)

Haven't had the chance to test these out on cards or any other art projects, but will try InsyaAllah when time permits.

(I have about 10 erasers left - beli borong kat mydin muahahahha)

Rubbers and stamps hehe

Whenever I go to any craft store, I always love to have a peek at all the stamps. A craft store normally have hundreds of them and I simply have to restrain myself from taking one. Why? Because I always thought those cute rubber stamps are too expensive for me. I know, crafters don't normally care about the price as long as they're in love with it, but as for me, I have other things to think of. That's why I hardly went to craft stores. Because I'm not really sure how much longer I can restrain myself from spending hundreds on those little cute things.

The good thing about being a Miyyah is that she always has her way around things haha. That's why I always improvise my tools. My papers. My scraps. After all, if you keep buying expensive scrapping materials, then it's not scrapping anymore as "scrap" means things that you normally throw away!

Internet has always been my main resources when it comes to improvising my crafts hahaha. This is what I found: you can make your own stamps that don't cost that much. Again, I decided to give it a try. I found some cute designs online and started drawing and carving...

... And I made these out of 8 erasers (I cut one eraser to 2 parts so I can have smaller stamps)


Had real fun stamping them on papers. Can you imagine how much you can save now?.. And all 8 erasers only cost me RM1.20! which means 15 cent per eraser.

Will show how they look like when you stamp them on paper later ok! Need to prepare for the evening class! Daa...